Things are starting to pick up. It was nice to have a slow beginning to the semester and let it pick up speed. Well, it's picking up now.
Papers are being assigned. Project due dates are coming up. And I finally got my last textbook in. That was a mess.
I ordered my textbooks all at once, some from Amazon and some from eBay. They all arrived either before or the day classes began.
All except for one.
I checked its status and it said it was expected to ship. Two weeks before the date I checked it.
No bueno.
I contacted the seller and they didn't reply. So, I had to report it to eBay. They wanted to contact them and wanted to know if I wanted the book or a refund.
The book. Obviously.
I don't order used textbooks online for the fun of getting refunded.
So, what happened?
I got a refund for it.
I used it to purchase the book from our bookstore. Once it came in the mail, I just set it on my shelf with my other books, box an' all. I'm at the point where I'm behind enough in our unit that I might as well just skip it and start reading the next unit.
Oh well. That's how life be sometimes.
I feel like I'm at an odd level of… popularity isn't exactly the right word. It's where people know you but not necessarily interact with/like you but they at least know who you are.
It's Sunday. I can't think.
Anyway, whatever it is, I'm at a weird level of it. I feel like a lot of people know who I am but, at the same time, they don't.
I have been receiving a lot of recognition for "my video," however, I'm not sure which one.
I don't know if I talked about this before (and since I'm too lazy to read through old posts), I'm gonna rehash everything for y'all.
The week between working housekeeping and helping with orientation, I started in the marketing department at Sterling College. During it, I shot and (mostly) edited a video with an inflatable dinosaur costume.
It wasn’t posted until the day classes started. So, once classes started, I had a lot of people complimenting me on the video.
Keep in mind that the “Campbell Things” video premiered the night before, which received a way bigger positive reaction than I anticipated. People are still bringing it up to me.
So, when someone compliments me on “my video,” I don’t know which one they are referring to. And I’m just like, “OK. Thanks!” and smile like I know exactly what they are talking about when, in reality, I really don’t.
But that’s how life be sometimes.
Sometimes, God gives you something to do or comment on and you need to be prepared. You either need to be prepared by keeping in His Word so you know what to do when a situation arises or when someone asks you a question about Him.
You also need to be open and honest when you don’t know what’s going on. It’s okay if you don’t know everything that is happening. It’s even better sometimes to be upfront about it and asking questions.
Sometimes, even if you do end up asking, you won’t get an answer. That’s not your fault. It’s on the other person for not knowing themselves or withholding that information. You did your part. As long as you did your best, you’re good.
That’s something I struggle with all the time.
Last week, we shot footage for this week’s chapel video. It was up to me to do all the shooting by myself.
There were a couple problems though.
The main thing is I didn’t know what the person in charge wanted. The two words “Something professional” didn’t help me at all. It actually gave me anxiety. Not only did I have to make something good, but it had to be of professional quality.
And I was all by myself.
It was a trainwreck.
I spent all Friday morning shooting with two different people. I felt like it was okay for the first chapel. A rocky start is still a start, right? We were going to improve with the next video.
I turned in my footage shortly thereafter. When I went to get my SD card back from the professor, he said it was unusable.
Everything I shot.
My whole morning was wasted.
I then explained to him that, in our email thread with everyone involved, I asked for a vision or something that lets me know how they want things framed. Do they want it stationary or do they want tracking shots? Indoor or outdoor? Lapel mic or boom? Fun or formal? Things like that.
I was told it was up to our three-person team and that, again, it had to be “something professional.”
Well, no one on the team gave any input over the course of the week. That did me no good. Back to square one.
Part of it is on them for not letting me know what they wanted for the video. When I want to make a video, I know what I want and I let everyone helping me know how to get there. When I’m helping someone else make their video, I only run off what they tell me they want. And this time they didn’t really tell me.
Another factor that made the footage unusable was technical stuff, which could have easily been fixed had I had someone there shooting with me on location. I can only focus on so many things at a time when it comes to running two cameras, working with talent, making sure their lines are correct, running audio, and just other stuff that comes up. The more things I have to do, the less quality they will all be.
Again, we go back to the beginning. Some of this could have been fixed before shooting. I voiced my concerns before but I could have done more on the front end to help push my point and its connotations.
Also, since I saw this coming and they didn’t, I could have prepared more to help prevent the issues. Still, I think it would all have had to be reshot but at least I wouldn’t have beaten myself up for it as hard.
So, we spent all Monday morning reshooting everything. This time, I had help AND a vision. They both certainly helped.
You may not always get a second chance to do things but, as long as you did your best, you can live with that. And if you don’t think you can live with your best, even if it’s not good, you really should.
Life is crazy. You just gotta play the cards you are dealt. How prepared are you to play?